"What would you do different knowing what you know now?" Topic

Here's another angle from my previous post (…recommedations for newbies..). Knowing what you know now – how would you have approached your (pick one or more) gaming/ painting/ modeling/ miniatures purchasing?

Thanks,
Mike

Only buy Vallejo paints for historicals. GW paints don't really have the right shades of greens and browns. And Tamiyia paints dry too fast to be able to mix when brush painting.

Buy a set of small files – these are very cheap and make cleaning minis so much easier.

Buy more original Epic stuff when it was available.

I would resist all of the passing fads and concentrate on areas around my core, historical interests.

Also would likely do more things in 6mm. My basement is getting pretty full and smaller scale stuff would help with storage.

never get into warhammer
never sell my kryomek stuff
pick a scale and stick to it
pick a setting/period and stick to it
dont get married
dont spend time/money on star fleet battles.
dont sell off old stuff, you pine for it and buy it again for more than you got.

Phil

I would have kept the second hand guitar and learned to play instead of selling it to buy more D&D stuff or 40K miniatures in the late 80's.

Otherwise, I would have sold all my 40K stuff in 1992 and invested in gold or oil.

Stick to one figure scale!

My 15mm Napoleonics would have been 10mm.

I would have somehow convinced my son that GW never made anything else except Space Hulk (1st edition).

Oh yes, and:

Base color spray primer, glue figures on painting sticks, and process in large batches … beats individually priming and painting single figures (especially 10mm) by a factor of 10!

Bought more Warzone, Kryomek and old Rogue Trader stuff when it was plentiful and inexpensive.

Never wasted money buying any 40K rules (except for RT).

Never sold off my Traveller books.

NEVER gotten engaged to that crazy French woman who threatened to throw out, melt down, or otherwise destroy my figure collection when I wasn't home.

When I started painting the options today did not exist, so I couldn't have started differently than I did. Today, I'd just buy a complete army from one company all in one go, and hit them with the "sand people" method: white primer, flesh tones, metal and wood (and a horsey color), then wash down with sepia ink, finish the bases, DONE – added details can come later….

I would have waited to start my Greeks until the Foundry World of the Greeks range came out and I would have bought more horde deals of that when they were first released.

My Carlist wars stuff would all be based on 40mm squares instead of 20mm individual bases.

I would have started Eastern ren in 15mm rather than trying 10mm and 28mm first.

None of my FOW stuff would be based on FOW bases, I would have put it all on metal bases instead.

Buy loads more Heritage figs like LOTR, Star Trek, Galactic Scifi and so on. Make sure that my entire collection wasn't stolen almost 30 years ago.

I would have only bought 1 scale and would have limited my self to historicals between the late 1800s and to the 1940s.
That oh shiney disease has left me with lots of unpainted lead in lots of scales

Interesting topic . . .

I think I would have started 15mm earlier and bought all my modern forces in that scale rather than 28mm.

I would have spent far less on WH40K (RT and 2nd Ed.) and spent far more on Vor and Warzone in the 90's.

I would have played Epic rather than 40K.

I would likely have rethought my choices leading to my current career since I no longer have time to game . . . .

NEVER gotten engaged to that crazy French woman who threatened to throw out, melt down, or otherwise destroy my figure collection when I wasn't home.

Now this story I would love to hear . . . .

Jeff

07 21 23 24 44

Not second-guess purchases or new eras of interest, get rid of those figures I had a great deal on, only then to get back into that era later and at a higher cost.

Dont build GW warhammer armies for supplement lists. The first time it gets made illegal, certainly dont do it again with another army.

I wish I'd discovered the Kaiser Rushforth storage boxes and foams a lot sooner

And I wish I'd paid more attention to the brackets on the shelf I put all my stuff on a couple of years back.

Never sell anything, ever. Only buy stuff on the basis that you are never going to sell it.

I wouldn't have wasted any time painting for any period because others were doing it. Now I paint only for my own favorite periods and haven't had as much unused armies around.

I would have bought many more Britians toy soldiers before they went out of production, and not melted down those that broke.

Sell NOTHING!

Stick to one scale, stick to one project until it is DONE. Do not get enthused by eye-candy on the web and buy figures only to sell later at a discount. Ignore skimish games.

I had to learn all that the hard and expensive way.

do my SYW and Romans in 25mm. Started saving up then for the Perry Napoleonics and WotR and Sudan figures now.

Nothing really, as I'm happy enough with the choices I've made. They may not be perfect, but there again I wouldn't be who I am now without the stuff I learnt from making mistakes in the past.

Nothing really, apart from getting rid of my original Rogue Trader, WRFP 1st Ed and WFB 3rd Ed stuff. That does cause an occasional pang.

never get married for a second time…

Stick to just two periods no matter what. (AB Naps and 1/285 WW2 planes in my case). Really sort out painting style, methods and techniques before embarking on the production of units and armies. Base on steel from the start.

Be a joiner rather than going it alone sooner.

Realize that Pete Berry was right all along about 60mm frontage for 6mm (I have rebased some figs 4 times).

Stuck to ancients, Napoleonics and WWII.

Move to doing two armies I like in 6mm or 10mm so I can play the periods I like, trying to keep up with fads does not work

Don't sell Gods, Demi-Gods and Heroes for a few years

Hammer home more forcefully that Julian needed a denser foam

Buy more LoTR stuff

One scale.

Bet on the Super Bowl and World Series winners for the last couple of years, so I would have enough money to buy all the figs I wanted, and build a house (with a warehouse in it) to store all my figs.

should have stuck to the 6mm ACW the second time I painted up my armies.

Zombies need more zombies

oh and start nagging about 15mm Klingons earlier.

(48)

Don't get married
Don't have kids
Don't buy Foundry
Don't buy 28mm plastics

Take all the millions you just saved and buy Front Rank and get them painted professionally.

Kidnap Tony Barton and hold him (in luxury) until he had completed the AB Napoleonics range.

And done an AWI one as well.

Buy GW shares in 1985, sell them in 2004.

Would have just bought peter pig, figures are great!

Doing Russian Civil War in 15mm. Major error. Peter Pig figures are indeed great but the lighting at our club just means they look like grey masses despite some pretty reasonable paint jobs in various shades of khaki.

I now have both sides in 15mm with tanks, armoured cars, the lot…even an armoured train! I am unable to sell them to re do it in 25mm as it's such a specialised period there's no interest in purchasing them. The lighting at our venue was simply not something I had factored in. It seems so obvious now and I'm kicking myself.

I'd plan armies better too, really think about what I'm buying and how often will I use it. For example I have 24 unpainted Peter Pig crossbowmen that I WAS going to use in my Wars Of The Roses army but now for reasons I won't bore you with they are surplus to requirements. I'd sell 'em off cheap but I can't get rid of 'em as nobody at my club needs 'em, I don't have an account with eBay and I'm not a Supporting Member so can't stick 'em on the Marketplace here so they are, in effect, wasted money. I should've planned more and opened my wallet less, but we all do it, buy first and think later.

never EVER have bought starfleet battles

* Stay away from the idea that "you can actually play AND finish an SPI game in a reasonable amount of time"…

* Realize that "ALL SPI games have the same contradicting loop error" and that it makes the game unplayable.

* Stay away from Time Tripper.

* Not trusted a person to keep my D*D figures in storage…

* Nor my dremel.

Not have gotten so excited about Starship Trooper figures just to be dashed within a year…..

Joined the group I'm in now a lot sooner than I did.

I would have made more time for gaming. Here's to fixing that!

Steve
Cavalcade Wargames
cavalcadewargames.com

Not sold my Battletech metals.

Invested heavily in the Foundry SYW figures when they first came out. Beg Mark Copplestone to do Brits, French and Austrians for the above range.

Bought about 50 bottles of Partha Paints 'Dragonscale Red,' the best color for 15mm Brit Napoleonic uniforms I know.

Second the previous comments about Star Fleet Battles, and I guess that goes double for Federation & Empire. Hey Steve Cole, when are we gonna see ISC for F&E, you've only been promising that one for 2 editions and 17 years now…

dont sell off old stuff, you pine for it and buy it again for more than you got.

Phil

Ain't that the truth!

@carne68:

I firmly believe that Stve Cole gets kickbacks from the paper industry.

F&E broke the spell for me, I woke up to his trick at that point.

I would join that other group that is still alive instead of sticking to the one I did that is now dead.

I would have opened my store in Fayetteville or Eureka Springs AR rather than Fort Smith. I would have limited my floor space to 1 game table, 4x4 for demos, in-store gaming doesn't work. I would have invested more in traditional toy soldiers and left RPG stuff the heck alone except for special orders on customer request. For sure would have been friendlier since I wouldn't have the bad element in the shop from all the gaming that I had going on. Majority were pleasant good people, but that 20% gives all a bad rep.

I would have managed my MTG stock better and had singles available for purchase. I would have given a discount everyday to every customer, ranging from 5% to 25% on everything at the register. I would have bought all of Bert Dunkens crap and moved it up here and set up a strong online presence for it and my store.

I'd not fight WW2 one for one in 1/300th scale. Rather use 1/285th scale instead.

I'd rent a bigger house with more room until I find a place to settle for more than a couple years.

Do Napoleonics in a larger scale, probably 28mm, doing tactical battles instead of Corps level games in smaller scales.

Find a redheaded Scots girl who is interested in history and will tolerate wargaming.

Bob Graham